Carrots

We aren't really starting solids until Will is 6 months old in a couple of weeks, but he has started reaching for our food while we are eating, which is supposed to be a sign that babies are ready for solids. We were eating stew a few nights ago and Will started smacking his lips like he really wanted to try it. So I thought I could just mash up a carrot and try to give it to him. Chris and I were both curious to see what his reaction to real food would be. I checked the recipe to make sure I didn't put anything too crazy in the stew and then mashed away. This is what happened....



Actually, that isn't all that happened. Chris gave it a try after I had tried a few times and Will ended up gagging himself. Needless to say, we will be waiting a few more weeks to try anything else and it won't be carrots next time. Oh, and I also found out that his first solids should actually be liquid. Lesson learned. :)

Here is another video of Will playing with a new toy Christmas night. It cracks me up when he notices the video camera.

Christmas in Pictures

Santa Claus is coming....

Will didn't tell me what he asked Santa for, but I hope it wasn't anything too big because he already got more toys for Christmas than what will fit in our house and it's not even Christmas Day yet.

I have always loved Christmas, but it is even more exciting when you have kids (or a kid, in my case). Giving and getting gifts is so much fun and I think it is a great way to celebrate the ultimate gift that was given to us. When I prayed over Will tonight, I prayed that he would grow up knowing that Christmas is a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus and that it wouldn't just be a day to get lots of toys. It sounds simple, but we all know how easy it is to lose focus of the true reason for the season.

Hard to Read

I just can't decide if Will likes his Jumperoo or not....what do you think?

I saw a picture like this one of Kate, and I had to steal the idea. Mine's not as good, but it's still a fun picture.

Daddy graduated!

Last night, Chris graduated with his Masters of Business Administration and I cannot tell you how excited we all are! This semester he worked full-time (plus some), took his first CPA exam, and took two classes (and made an A in both). So when he wasn't working, he was in class or studying. Even with so much going on, he has been such a good daddy...but it has been a little frustrating for him (and me) that he hasn't been able to spend as much time as he has wanted to with us. He will still be studying for the CPA exam for awhile, but having school out of the mix will be great!

You can't really see them that well in this picture, but Chris calls Will's shoes his Jessica Simpson boots. I have to admit, they are slightly girly...but they are so cute and he didn't have any other shoes to match his outfit. They are actually little sweater booties that I found at Banana Republic. I'm not quite sure what makes them Jessica Simpson boots....just another one of those crazy things that Chris comes up with.

We are so proud of you, Chris! We love you and we know that you are doing it all for us!!

Christmas Card

I think everyone should have gotten their card by now. If not, sorry to spoil it...but here it is! And because so many people have asked - yes, I did take the picture. :)



For a child has been born - for us! The gift of a son - for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. Isaiah 9:6 (The Message)

Videos

Chris finally uploaded a few videos and I am so excited to share them! He taught me how to do it, so hopefully I can remember and post videos more often.

Here is the hilarious video of my 5-year-old cousin, Amanda, that I told you about a couple of posts ago. She is singing a song about Chris.



And here is a video of Will from last night. I promise he had on pants, but they literally fell off of him while him and Chris were playing. They are only 0-3 month....the boy is little, I tell ya!



This is the only other one we have uploaded. Will had just woken up from a nap in his swing, and I just think it is sweet. :)

Emma Kate is here!

Emma Kate was born this morning and she is adorable! Kristin said childbirth was a breeze and since it was that easy, who knows how many kids her Brice will end up with! I thought it was pretty easy too (when I did it), but it didn't make me want to have a bunch of kids. :)

I love the little pink bow they put on her hat!

This was Will's response when I told him Emma Kate was here! He can't wait to meet her.

Road Trip

We took Will on his first road trip for Thanksgiving. We went to see my grandparents and the rest of my dad's side of the family in Denver. It's about an 8 hour car ride (it took us longer) and Will did great. I was pretty nervous about how he would do in the car for so long, but he did this most of the way...

We let him drive some of the way to keep him entertained. Don't worry, he could almost see over the steering wheel.

Will got to meet his great grandparents for the first time.

He also got to meet my cousins that are actually closer in age to him than me.

Laurel, Elizabeth, and Will

Alex, Amanda, and Will

Will and Micaela

Alex was so excited to have a boy cousin!

Here is Will's great great grandfather (yes, two greats) seeing Will for the first time. Will slept through the first meeting, but it was really neat!

All five generations. Will, me, my dad (Pop), my dad's dad (Grandpa), and my dad's dad's dad (Pop).

I love this picture of Pop holding Will.

Will with Uncle Kevin and Aunt Aimee (I guess that would be his great uncle and aunt).

Will also got to meet Uncle Brian, Aunt Kathy, and my cousin Jackie....but I did not get pictures of any of them! I think Brian and Kathy were busy chasing around Micaela and we only saw Jackie one night at dinner. My cousin Jessica is in the cousin picture below.

It snowed the first night we were there and this is what it looked like out of our bedroom window when we woke up the first morning.

Casa Bonita is a place that I loved going to when I was a kid, so I wanted to take Chris and Will there. The whole family went one night and we all had a blast (at least all of us kids did). They have a huge waterfall in the middle of the restaurant that divers dive off of and they have fun little skits that they do while you're eating dinner. There's also a scary cave that you can walk through. It still scared me, of course. Little kids kept jumping out at me. Chris thought it was pretty funny.

The tower at Casa Bonita.

Us with my cousins (minus Micaela) at Casa Bonita. The waterfall was in the background, but you can't see it. I'm bummed that this picture came out blurry.

Our little family standing in front of the waterfall at Casa Bonita.

This is my cousin, Amanda. She is 5 and has quite the personality. She looooves Will and Chris too, for that matter. I have a hilarious video of her singing a song about Chris that I will put on here, if I can ever figure that out. We have a lot of pictures of her because she just loved playing with "Baby Will"...she said so many funny things while we were there. She kept getting in Will's face to kiss, hug, and talk to him. At one point, she got right up to his face and very enthusiastically said, "Hi Baby Will! I'm your family!" One day, I was sitting in the room we were staying in, quietly feeding Will and she busts into the room and asks, "What are you doing?" I told her I was feeding Will and she said, "I can't believe it! I remember when my mom did that, and it was soooo disgusting!"

Will's first Thanksgiving.

We went up to the mountains one day to see Kevin and Aimee's house and Pop's new apartment that they added on to their house.

You can't really tell that we're in the mountains in this picture, but it was really cold and we didn't want to take Will too far away from the house.

Will was sleeping in the car when this picture was taken.

The last night we were there, we celebrated Pop's 94th birthday!

We also did lots of relaxing while were there....

Will got to lay around in bed with his daddy.

Chris even let Will borrow his Tempurpedic eye mask.

Will took a few naps on Pop.

All in all, I think Will had a pretty good time.